Charlie Kuhn
Charlie Kuhn was one of the brightest surfing stars of the 1980s. Born and raised in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Kuhn began surfing at age 12, cutting his teeth at the area’s most famous and feared wave, Sebastian Inlet. In 1982, one year before he went pro, Kuhn won the Men’s division of both the Eastern Surfing Association (ESA) Championship and the U.S. Surfing Championship.
During his tenure on the ASP World Tour, Kuhn won the 1985 Lacanau Pro in France, riding out of impossible sections with a driving, low-slung stance, and making smooth connections between turns. On the 1986 tour, he was ranked 15th in the world, becoming the second Floridian — behind Jeff Crawford — to break into the tour’s “Top 16.” He also won the season title on the US-based Bud Pro Tour. Kuhn’s wave riding feats, particularly his performance on the World Tour, earned him a cover on globally distributed Surfing Magazine and helped put the East Coast on the world surfing map.
In 1988, after just four years on the tour, Kuhn retired from international competition. The unassuming surfer cited exhaustion as his reason. He is quoted in Matt Warshaw’s The Encyclopedia of Surfing as saying, “It’s just a never-ending deal with the tour. It’s a circus. I’ve done it, I’ve seen it, and I’m glad I did, but it’s not something I want to do for another four years.”
Kuhn turned his attention to the domestic circuit, and in 1990, he took first place at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) East Coast Tour, as well as the runner-up spot in the Professional Surfing Association of America (PSAA) Tour. He also appeared in several surf movies and videos, including Herbie Fletcher’s Wave Warriors IV (1989), Session Impossible (1991) and Panama Red (1994).
Today, Kuhn lives and surfs in Costa Rica.
